#fridayfictioneers via madison woods – 9/21

Every Wednesday Madison Woods posts a picture prompt to challenge writers to create a 100-word story or poem or anything that works for you. then post your work on your blog. additionally, on friday, you go back to her site and post a link to your blog entry in the comments on her Friday Fictioneers post.

I’m going to try to keep up with this, as should you. give it a shot. i prefer to stick to 100 words, but she doesn’t mind either way. not everyone has the time to sit and write, revise, edit, revise, edit, etc. until getting it down to 100 and telling everything you want to tell.

Here’s this week’s picture and my 100 words.

“What’s that, Dad?”

“A pixie, or a fairie. Not sure.”

“They’re really big!”

“Only the evil ones. The good ones could fit in your hand.”

“You ever see one?”

“No, but Mom says she did.”

“What’re those sticks on its back?”

“Not sticks. Wings.”

“They can fly?!”

“Could fly.”

“Whatta you mean could fly?”

“There are no more, Dear.”

“Why not?”

“I guess we stopped believing.”

A pensive, sad little face.

“But I didn’t stop.”

“That’s good, Dear. There’s other sculptures over there.”

As Wendy and her father stepped away, a subtle crack sprinkled plaster crumbs to the floor.

Your story reminds me of Neil Young’s song Sugar Mountain. I didn’t stop believing and still see pixies now and again when I least expect to. Wendy (the perfect name) being pulled along into her father’s pixieless future is a sad sprite. Your last sentence is perfect.

As soon as you mentioned “I guess we stopped believing” I thought of Peter Pan. A great exchange between father and daughter, not too sure about him calling her ‘dear’ , perhaps he is an older dad… but then I grew up with a father who called me allsorts of odd names, like pumpkin, curly, etc., so what do I know!
Well done Rich, great take on the prompt this week.

Hi Rich,
Thanks for your comment. I often write in present tense because it gives a sense of immediacy to the writing. You’re the only one to notice or at least to say anything. That’s one thing I really like about FF, that you can experiment with different writing techniques in a small-sized format. Ron

i didn’t think of that aspect, but yeah, it’s a good testing ground. i avoid present tense because it doesn’t feel right, but that’s just a personal choice. present tense – for me – makes me wonder how someone could possibly be recording or telling their thoughts while it’s happening. i like to imagine that any story is being literally “told” from one person to another, but i can’t use that when in present tense.

mythology – love that stuff. thanks. i used to teach a mythology class to 10th graders. was a lot of fun, especially when it was time for them to create their own characters and stories to explain natural phenomena.

I wandered over from Shakira’s blog and so glad I did! This was beautiful. Sometimes, it takes just one person to believe to make something real! Very fascinating (peeking above) that you taught mythology and to a great age of high schoolers.